ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
Well, now from President Obama's day to the day of at least the hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall. Melissa earlier today, you were in that sea of people. Where did you end up?
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
Way in the back, (laughing) way in the back between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, probably a mile and a half from the Capitol, no view of the Capitol itself. I was in with the ticketless hoi polloi, what one in the crowd called the Great Unwashed. I got there about nine in the morning, and there were people rolled up in blankets sleeping on the ground - they may have been there all night - kids playing cards, watching Sunday's Inaugural concert on Jumbotrons as they waited for the events to begin. Everyone, of course, wearing Barack Obama buttons and hats and shirts. It was a bitter cold day as you know and I could find no warmer greeting on the Mall today than this one.
BLOCK: Good morning everybody. How are you? Oh, what a wonderful day. Good morning and welcome to Moving Day at the White House. Good morning.
BLOCK: That's volunteer Richard Byrd of Camp Springs, Maryland, out spreading good cheer.
BLOCK: Oh, this is a monumentous occasion. I wouldn't miss this for any thing in the world. It doesn't get any better than this.
BLOCK: At the foot of the Washington Monument, I found David Sheets(ph) of Calais, Vermont, the state curator. Even at nine in the morning, he said, this was an emotional day already.
BLOCK: I love this country. I have felt that we've been on the outside, a lot of us, for over eight years. We have not felt very proud of our country and I'm tremendously proud of it today.
BLOCK: David Sheets was there with several friends including John Newby(ph), who grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, and remembers well the segregation of the Jim Crow South. The signs on the bathrooms - white men, white women, and then just colored. He said part of the dream of Dr. King may be materializing today. John Newby looked out at the landmarks on all sides - the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol, the White House and thought of history.
BLOCK: Many of these building were built with the help and assistance of slaves. And it's just so magnanimous to be able to look around now in terms of what has been accomplished over the last many years, you know, which makes you very proud.
BLOCK: Do you think there is a danger, maybe, of setting hopes too high?
BLOCK: Yes, I do, because also we set our hopes too high then the falls can be pretty dramatic.
BLOCK: People have to be realistic, John Newby said. After all, Barack Obama is the president. He isn't the messiah.
BLOCK: My turn or your turn?
BLOCK: Susan Williams was sitting on the ground with her young sons playing a round of crazy-eights looking forward to what she sees as a shift in the world.
BLOCK: I think the world will see that we are going to resume putting diplomacy first before military might. I think we'll look at ourselves, that we voted for the best possible person regardless of race or sex, that we are voting for hope and inspiration. We're willing to take that leap of faith for a nation that believes again.
BLOCK: Mark Duffie(ph) came down from New York. He works for the Port Authority, was at the World Trade Center for the attacks in 1993, then in 2001, and he was reminded of that time today but now in a joyous context.
BLOCK: People kind of, you know, breaking down the barriers between people - post-9/11. I remember in the subways of New York City where people actually looked across at each other and asked if you were OK, and you'd see the same thing here where people are just kind of talking to each other and bonding and asking each other where they're from, and I think everybody is really joyful.
BLOCK: I'm with about two or three million of my closest friends. (Laughing)
BLOCK: That's Thad Jackson. He and his wife Leslie left 85-degree San Diego to shiver in the D.C. chill. I asked what their expectations are for the new president.
BLOCK: Well for one, you know, I don't want to be the most hated country on the earth, you know. It's time for all of us to, to turn this economy around, I mean that's, that's first and foremost. I mean, we're on the verge of being owned by China and some of the other countries. I mean, we used to be the biggest superpower there is and now, you know, we're basically been bought out.
BLOCK: You know, in some ways this is a really lousy time to becoming president. I mean, it is.
BLOCK: You almost need your head examined just to want this job right now. (Laughing)
BLOCK: It's not going to happen overnight - we know that it's going to take some time but we're willing to wait.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "AMERICA")
BLOCK: (Singing) Land where my fathers died...
BLOCK: During the Inauguration itself the crowd was mesmerized, holding up cell phones and cameras, children perched on shoulders, flags waiving.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "AMERICA")
BLOCK: (Singing) From every, every mountainside...
BLOCK: People floated on Aretha Franklin's soaring rendition of "America," and when Barack Obama took the oath of office and these words reverberated across the National Mall...
BLOCK: So help you God.
P: So help me God.
BLOCK: Congratulations, Mr. President.
BLOCK: Many in the crowd wiped away tears. As the multitude streamed from the Mall, I found Judy Dallas(ph) in from Columbus, Ohio with her family including four grandchildren, ages five to 10. What have you been telling your grandchildren about this day?
BLOCK: Um, just telling them that this is our history and that 200 years ago, this wasn't even imaginable and like we're cold now, the kids are cold and they're complaining and I'm saying, hey, our forefathers worked in the cold, you know, running for freedom from slavery, crossing mountains, going through woods in dark and night for our freedoms. So, you can stand two hours. This is the day that I want you to tell your children that you were there.
BLOCK: And do they understand that?
BLOCK: No, probably not.
BLOCK: I also stopped to talk with Ron Ford(ph) of Washington, D.C. You know the message, time and time again in the Inaugural Address today you heard the raging storm, hard work, icy currents. I mean this was a pretty dark message, I think in a lot of ways, did you read it that way.
BLOCK: It was very real. He made people understand the hardships that we were going to face and the hardship that we currently face and the silver lining that's going to come.
BLOCK: Robert, just a few of the people in that on the National Mall today speaking about this Inauguration and about the future.